Several AOL users are complaining on Twitter that their email accounts have been hacked and are being used to send out spam to others.

Multiple users have said that their accounts have been affected despite not being used in a long time. Among them is Los Angeles Times Food Editor Russ Parsons.

"I've gotten a couple of emails from friends telling me that my AOL account had been hacked and that they were getting spammed by it. The thing is, that account has been closed for at least two years," Parsons said in an email.

It's unclear how widespread the problem is or what is causing it. Users are complaining that changing their accounts' passwords is not resolving the problem, as is usually the case when an email account has been hacked.

AOL has not addressed the situation and could not be reached for comment.

[Updated 3:50 p.m. PDT April 21: AOL said it is working on resolving the issue. The company said users can go to AOL's help website to check on the latest updates and said that users should contact AOL if they believe their account was hacked.

@timetraveler2 I'm not "on" AOL, I simply have my mail sent to Outlook, as I do with gmail. I've had no problem (and therefore no reason) to cancel the AOL account... until now. You could have presented your statement in a benign, informative manner; instead you chose to...

"AOL takes the safety and security of consumers very seriously, and we are actively addressing consumer complaints," the company said in a statement. "We are working to resolve the issue of account spoofing to keep users and their respective accounts running smoothly and securely."]

If you get an email from an "@aol.com" account that looks suspicious and contains a link, do not click on it.

Here's what users are saying on Twitter:

Major Security breach #aol#AOLHacked so if anyone gets email with attachment from my AOL account in next 72 hrs please delete immediately.